Mangy Fox

[Pol]

The very sad sight of a Fox with Mange.

Note the typical signs and symptoms - bare patches, sore skin, limping due to sore skin, conjunctivitis, dehydration etc. We're doing our best to help him with a good diet and have also sent off for a homeopathic remedy - hoping he'll keep coming so we can try to treat him long enough to try to help him improve.

Any help and advice from 'Words' (if he sees this) would also be very welcome and much appreciated. (We've sent off for Arsenicum Alb Sulphur 30C and are feeding sultanas, honey, jam, marmite sandwiches, bits of cooked chicken and also leaving lots of fresh water). He perks up after eating and drinking so we're keeping our fingers crossed for his survival.





Fingers crossed he'll keep coming in the daytime, take his food and treatment,improve and survive.

Pol

[jojo]

Re: Mangy Fox

Aww, poor thing. I know "nature is nature", but...... ? Glad you're trying to help him improve his lot Pol.

jo

[Gina]

Re: Mangy Fox

Oh pol,

I hope he makes it, is he a garden fox?

[Pol]

Re: Mangy Fox

This one is almost certainly an urban fox. We get both rural and urban foxes visiting and the urbans are usually less healthy (fields and farms one direction - small residential areas leading from the other and all connected with a network of hedged footpaths and lanes).

We're staying optimistic this particular fox might make it as the mange is less than 60%. He still has quite a lot of fur on his body and head, one eye looking not too bad. He's not drinking excessively either so that's also encouraging. We know he's been visiting at night for a few days and he's also been eating from the food we leave for all the foxes. They have a special ground feeder tray that has sultanas, Markies, the occasional egg that might have a cracked shell, bits of chicken etc. They sometimes take some of the hedgehog pellets too so there's always something available.

It seems he'd only just reached the stage where he was starting to lose his fear of humans and show himself in the daylight. He spent a while resting, went back to take more food and water a couple of times and perked up quite noticeably after maybe 2-3 hours and a belly full of good food and water. His eyes were open and looking brighter by the time he eventually left so we're hoping he might keep coming in the daylight so we can target him more easily and try to make sure he gets enough more good food... maybe even manage to get some treatment for him if we're very lucky.

I gather he should start to stabilise with regular decent food and water so we'll just have to keep feeing them and hoping this particular fella is on the mend rather than on the way further downhill.

I love watching the foxes. They're so splendid when they're healthy and bushy tailed. It was heartbreaking seeing this fella in that condition.


Pol

[caveman]

Re: Mangy Fox

Well done for being so nice and trying to help! They are beautiful creatures so please do all you can for it. Keep us updated!

[Pol]

Re: Mangy Fox

Well done for being so nice and trying to help! They are beautiful creatures so please do all you can for it. Keep us updated!

Will do, assuming he keeps coming back. No sign of him this morning, though it's always possible he may have visited during the night.

Here's a link for the National Fox Welfare Society, where you can read a bit more about Foxes with Mange.

http://www.nfws.org.uk/mange/

First time we've had one showing up in this condition so we've sent away for their Homeopathic treatment and are trying to improve his diet in the meantime.

Pol

[Pops]

Re: Mangy Fox

Pol....you get absolute top marks for all your doing to help the poor thing.
I really do hope he makes a recovery, for your satisfaction as well as his.

Do inform us of progress.

[Pol]

Re: Mangy Fox

Do inform us of progress.

He isn't coming during the daytime now so we think that might be because he's behaving more normally now, back to his normal avoidance of humans. I'm fairly certain I spotted him visiting the food tray a couple of nights ago - the bare tail was fairly distinctive. David reckoned he was aboiut 40-50% affected but I didn't agree. I reckoned it was more like 25-30%. Looking at him with binos he didn't seem to have any infected sores either.

The sandwiches weren't well received by any of the foxes, which is hardly surprising as they're more used to sultanas, chunks of fresh pear, meat scraps and the occasional markies when we have them.

So we're leaving out larger supplies for them now so that the ones that visit in the early hours, near dawn, still find enough good quality food to eat. I've splashed out on a large bag of all-in-one premium dog food which has all the necessary added vitamins etc and that's going down well.

So we think the mangy one is likely to be doing ok, although it would be nice, in some ways, to see him once or twice in the daylight to be 100% certain.


Pol

[Pops]

Re: Mangy Fox

Pleased to hear that Pol...looks like your attention paid off.

You know what they say about Marmite....ya either love it or you hate it.
We now know which category your fox falls into

[jojo]

Re: Mangy Fox

Yeah, fingers crossed he's doing all right. Thanks for the update Pol.

jo